An elegant, detailed and accurate news site for those interested in the maritime business in the Southeastern United States, Caribbean and Central America

March 30, 2015

The Russian space agency Roscosmos and its US counterpart NASA have agreed to build a new space station after the current International Space Station (ISS) The Russian space agency Roscosmos and its US counterpart NASA have agreed to build a new space station after the current International Space Station (ISS) expires and cooperate on the exploration of Mars.

The operation of the ISS was prolonged until 2024.“We have agreed that Roscosmos and NASA will be working together on the program of a future space station," Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov said during a news conference on Saturday.The talks were held at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.The two agencies will be unifying their standards and systems of manned space programs, according to Komarov. “This is very important to future missions and stations.”The ISS life cycle was to expire in 2020. “Under the ISS program the door will be open to otherparticipants,” Komarov told reporters.The next goal for the two agencies is a joint mission to Mars, NASA chief Charles Bolden told journalists.Roscosmos and NASA are working with each other and other partners on a global roadmap of space exploration, Bolden said. “Our area of cooperation will be Mars. We are discussing how best to use the resources, the finance, we are setting time frames and distributing efforts in order to avoid duplication.”Read moreNASA is currently committed to commercializing space activities. “We are consciously moving away from government financing of low-orbit missions,” Bolden said, adding that sometimes NASA “has been criticized” for that.At the same time, he stressed that the US has not abandoned its goal of returning to the moon. In the future, NASA is planning “to attract more private developers to our joint exploration projects of the Moon and Mars,”Bolden said.

expires and cooperate on the exploration of Mars.

The operation of the ISS was prolonged until 2024.“We have agreed that Roscosmos and NASA will be working together on the program of a future space station," Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov said during a news conference on Saturday.The talks were held at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.The two agencies will be unifying their standards and systems of manned space programs, according to Komarov. “This is very important to future missions and stations.”The ISS life cycle was to expire in 2020. “Under the ISS program the door will be open to otherparticipants,” Komarov told reporters.The next goal for the two agencies is a joint mission to Mars, NASA chief Charles Bolden told journalists.Roscosmos and NASA are working with each other and other partners on a global roadmap of space exploration, Bolden said. “Our area of cooperation will be Mars. We are discussing how best to use the resources, the finance, we are setting time frames and distributing efforts in order to avoid duplication.”NASA is currently committed to commercializing space activities. “We are consciously moving away from government financing of low-orbit missions,” Bolden said, adding that sometimes NASA “has been criticized” for that.At the same time, he stressed that the US has not abandoned its goal of returning to the moon. In the future, NASA is planning “to attract more private developers to our joint exploration projects of the Moon and Mars,”Bolden said.

Panama Canal sets sights on new $17 billion expansion project

As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world’s biggest ships.

Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger “Post-Panamax” ships through the Canal, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Spain’s Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.

But Jorge Quijano, who leads the Panama Canal Authority, is already looking beyond this project to a fourth set of locks which would serve a new generation of even bigger ships that can carry 20,000 containers.

“Looking at our geology and the experience we gained with this current expansion, we estimate it’s a project that could cost between $16 billion and $17 billion,” he told Reuters, adding it would allow Panama to compete head-to-head with Egypt’s Suez Canal.

The Panama Canal Authority has long talked about building a fourth set of locks but Quijano said it is now for the first time seriously studying the project.

He says container ship traffic through the Canal has risen around 3 to 4 percent in the last few months due to a backlog at U.S. West Coast ports, which were hit by a now-settled labor dispute disrupting trans-Pacific trade..

“It has had a positive impact for us, but the Suez Canal has been the big winner because they can handle the Post-Panamax ships,” Quijano said.

If the Canal goes ahead with the project, Quijano says it could be completed within 15 years and that financing options include issuing bonds and using the Canal’s own revenues.

China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), a subsidiary of state-owned China Communications Construction Co Ltd, has voiced interest in building and financing a fourth set of locks in Panama, and Quijano said company officials met with him this week.

Further north in Nicaragua, a little-known Chinese businessman has vowed to build a $50 billion canal across the country to rival Panama’s, although some industry experts are deeply skeptical, pointing to the high costs, environmental challenges and the firm’s lack of experience in such projects.

The Panama Canal’s current expansion plan was originally set at $5.25 billion but the costs rose and the administrator became locked in a dispute with building consortium Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC), which built the third set of locks. Quijano said GUPC has submitted claims totaling $2.3 billion to date.

Giuseppe Quarta, GUPC’s CEO, says he is unsure whether its members would be interested in bidding to build a fourth set of locks, saying the Canal Authority has repeatedly rejected its claims in the dispute.

Quijano says the Canal has already lost around $400 million in revenue because of project delays caused by the spat.

The giant new locks sit alongside those of the existing Panama Canal and include a complex reservoir system that will empty and fill the lock chambers using gravity rather than pumps.

Sections of the 100-year-old waterway are being dredged to take ships with a greater draft.

Any new project to build a fourth set of locks will live or die by trade flows, says Maersk Line, a unit of conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk. It is a major customer of the Panama Canal, crossing it 300 to 350 times a year.

“The big question for any future expansion of the Panama Canal is will trade growth sustain that extra investment,” said Robbert Jan van Trooijen, Maersk Line’s CEO for Latin America and the Caribbean. “For me, to see any of those (mega) ships coming near Latin America, that’s the very distant future.” (Reuters)

March 24, 2015

East Coast sees ‘land of opportunity’ In wake of West Coast port concerns

about 2 hours ago

East Coast ports look to see significant long-term container volume growth in the wake of West Coast labor and congestion issues, according to opening session speakers at the JAXPORT Logistics & Intermodal Conference.

“There is going to be a monumental change here,” Brian Taylor, chief executive officer of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Port Authority, said today [March 24] at the conference at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

In a panel session during which he was joined by fellow top port executives of the region.

Taylor termed the future outlook as “the South Atlantic land of opportunity,” adding that shippers without significant distribution centers on the East Coast are now moving in that direction, and more shippers are looking to trans-Suez Canal routings from Asia as well.

Curtis Foltz, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, said that, whereas East Coast ports are “never going to be a replacement” for West Coast gateways, the Port of Savannah has seen three times greater than projected container volume growth since October.

Stating that West Coast issues extend beyond labor concerns, Foltz said Southeast ports need a long-term plan to stay ahead of the curve, including deeper harbors, as advancing in Savannah, as well as better capabilities for efficiently moving containers inland by rail and truck.

Paul Cozza, chief executive officer of the North Carolina State Ports Authority, said, “There’s going to be really a material shift to the East Coast. We need to step up and provide the service they [shippers] need.”

In welcoming remarks, Clarence Gooden, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Jacksonville-based Class I rail firm CSX Corp., said, “The East Coast ports are going to benefit greatly off this disaster on the West Coast,” which, he said, is “probably going to have more strategic implications in the near term than the opening of the [expanded] Panama Canal.”

March 23, 2015

Brian Hall has a Cuba Dream. He’s named it “CubaKat,” all part of his business plan to revive the once popular ferry service from Florida to Cuba.

Back in the 50s, before Fidel Castro’s revolution and the resulting U.S. embargo on the communist island, taking ferries from Key West to Havana was a daily option for American tourists.

Hall has already purchased one catamaran in the Bahamas, planning to ferry Americans from a marina in Marathon, in the Florida Keys, to Cuba. The trip would take less than 4 hours.

"The Cuban side — they have done nothing but open their arms,” he said. "They want us to come so bad. It's like the Berlin Wall has fallen and they're begging for us to come."

Hall and half a dozen other American entrepreneurs have begun applying with the U.S. Treasury Department for future licenses to put American tourists willing to pay upwards of $300 onto catamarans and ships for the 90 mile journey through the Florida Straits.

So far, the Treasury Department is making no public comment about a timeline — when or even if ferry service will resume, but these would-be ferry operators want to be the first in line.

United America’s Joe Hinson, who is based in Miami, wants to bring his big, Baja Ferry over from Mexico to do the same from Florida to Cuba. Those ships are larger, feature cabins and a casino and would be a more relaxed, overnight, 10-hour cruise.

“We’re quite comfortable that it’s one of those situations where [it’s just] ‘build it and they will come’,” Hinson said.

The U.S. and Cuba’s efforts at normalizing diplomatic relations are ongoing, as both work to reopen their respective embassies. The changing relationship also reveals the market is there for Cuba-curious Americans eager for an open-water trip to the past.

Onboard the Key West Express, which offers daily ferry service between Ft. Myers and Key West, Mike Hazelhoff of Minnesota said “I would definitely go. I’ll take the first ferry.” His wife Sally added, “I would like to go, mainly to experience something new. It would be on my bucket list!”

Christopher Smith of San Francisco said, “I’d love to go to Cuba. It’s been closed to U.S. citizens for so long, it seems like it would be a wonderful experience to socialize with the people and the culture and kinda get a feel for Cuba."

Cuba and the U.S. State Department hope to reopen their respective embassies in mid-April. Meanwhile, these ferry boat buying entrepreneurs believe the sky’s the limit for profits, if the government’s wave of normalization begins to allow it.

March 12, 2015

Zepol reports that total U.S. container imports are down over 5 percent this year, compared to January and February of 2014. Nearly the entire decline in imports was attributed to West Coast ports. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which make up a combined 40 percent of U.S. container imports, declined by 19 and 20 percent so far in 2015. East Coast ports have reaped the benefit, especially the port of New York/Newark, which increased container imports by 8 percent this year.

“The decline along the West Coast has lead to diverted shipments and a surplus in volume across the Atlantic and Gulf Coast,” confirms Zepol’s CEO and trade data expert Paul Rasmussen. “Due to these events, it’s the first time in over 11 years the port of New York/Newark has passed Long Beach as the second-largest port in the United States.”

Total U.S. imports by TEUs (twenty-foot containers) dropped from 2.93 million in January through February of 2014 to 2.78 million in 2015. Combined, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have declined by over 230,000 TEUs compared to the first two months of 2014.

Most East Coast and Gulf-Coast ports haven’t seen decay, but growth in containers. The port of New York/Newark grew by over 34,000 TEUs. The port of Savannah increased 20 percent with an increase of over 40,000 TEUs and Houston rose 29 percent, by nearly 31,000 TEUs.

March 05, 2015

Port of Oakland says no to business as usual

Disruptions from waterfront labor negotiations have waned, but don’t expect a return to business as usual at West Coast ports. “The old methods won’t work any longer,” Port of Oakland executive director Chris Lytle said here today.

Addressing shippers and other stakeholders at a meeting of The Waterfront Coalition, Mr. Lytle said his industry must change, “We can’t go back to the way it was; that’s not acceptable,” he told an audience that included federal maritime commission Chairman Mario Cordero. “We have to do a better job for our customers if we want to hold onto our market share.”

Mr. Lytle joined other West Coast port executives in addressing the aftermath of nine months of labor-management disputes on the waterfront. The longshore contract impasse ended February 20 with a tentative settlement of a new contract for ports from Seattle to San Diego.

Ports now are digging out from a cargo backlog that has hampered retailers and other shippers in the US. Mr. Lytle called for a number of improvements to reshape his industry as recovery from the labor dispute gets underway. They include: “We need a new mindset for negotiating,” Mr. Lytle said. “What we just went through was the worst experience in my professional career. I don’t want to go through that again.”

Reduced transaction times for harbor truck drivers who can spend more than two hours inside marine terminals picking up cargo;

Better measurement of terminal operating performance; and

A new labor-management relationship.

Mr. Lytle said there is an opportunity for ports to play a greater role in labor relations by working with labor and management for greater collaboration.

The Port of Oakland does not hire longshore labor. That is the role of terminal operators and shipping lines in the Pacific Maritime Association. Nevertheless, Mr. Lytle said the port will meet with local labor officials and encourage them to take part in talks with shippers who rely on the Port of Oakland to move their cargo. “Better understanding of shipper needs can lead to better outcomes in future bargaining,” he added.

Mr. Lytle said the port will work with terminal operators to develop uniform methods of collecting and distributing performance data. Shippers and the truck drivers they hire have asked for the information to streamline the pick up and delivery of containerized cargo.

“The port will also work with leasing companies to improve the availability of truck chassis,” Mr. Lytle added. These are the trailers used to haul cargo containers over the road. Chassis have been in short supply at all West Coast sports during the recent cargo build up. Mr. Lytle indicated that the Port will work toward a common pool of the trailers to prevent shortages from recurring.